Harvesting solar power from outer space !

I was driving back to my home from my office. One the way I got a chance to hear about harvesting solar power from outer space, broadcasted on the National Public Radio. I found it an interesting topic to share with you all. Two different organizations JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Solaren Corporation, California have already started working on it and both of them have claimed that they can produce energy for commercial purpose by 2016.

Space based solar energy technology is an idea of going to the space where sunshine is always constant and the intensity is at least 10 times higher than here in earth, since it doesn’t have to pass through the atmosphere . The idea behind the space solar energy is to collect that solar energy in space and transmit it efficiently to the earth. Two large reflectors would be there on space that continuously collect the incoming sunlight and converge it into the Photovoltaic Cells array, using the secondary mirrors as shown in the figure. The Photovoltaic Cells arrays convert the sunlight into voltage. It is than converted to Radio Energy and beamed down to the receiver on earth. The radio energy used is similar to the Radio signal we use for Wi-fi or wirless routers. The RF signal is received by the receiver on earth .The RF energy than can be converted into electric power and passed to the electric grid. Transmission of power through RF energy is already a proven technology.
John Manikins, CEO Managed Energy Technology and the President of Space Power Association claims that a single solar power satellite plant in space can produce up to 100 times more energy than a typical turbine base energy plant in earth. A typical turbine energy plant can produce about 60 MW in average

We don’t need to be surprised to see that one day we will be carrying the electric power with us. It will be like carrying a GPS or a Radio where we just need to tune it on to get the electrical energy. Lot of risks and challenges are there but the upside potential is so great and high. It’s the fact that every new project has challenges and risks.

Thanks for reading,
~sapanasansar

I have referred the following links for the articles. Please visit them for your further understanding about solar space power energy.

• http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/2009/04/harvesting-powe.html
  
• http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/insights/wireless_power/
  
• http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/space_based_solar_power/
  
• http://inventorspot.com/articles/spacebased_solar_cells_could_bea_7507\
  
• http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/07/japans-space-agency-planning-space-based-solar-power-arrays/
  
• www.solarenspace.com/
  

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